SHOO FLY;  DON'T BOTHER ME!

by Monique DeNault

The charm of warm weather has most Calgarians clamoring to get outside and live life to its fullest. Sadly, we are often stopped in our tracks by yellow jackets or hungry mosquitoes. The threat of swelling, itching, getting sick from a bite or being exposed to bug deterring toxins doesn't have to ruin summer's charm.  Instead, take a proactive approach and bring your health and happiness to the forefront of this summer’s warmest months.

To lessen your exposure to wasps you need to send them packing, literally. When wasps are asleep at night take the time to remove all unwanted nests. Removal should be done with caution while wearing a lot of clothing layers. For the faint of heart, contact a pest professional, it is your safest bet. Once all nests have been removed, make or purchase fake nests for your property.  Fake nests work because wasps are territorial and seeing a nest tricks them into thinking your yard has already been claimed.

With wasp populations in control, stray wasp tactics to consider are avoiding perfume, covering protein food sources when outdoors, wearing white clothing, and avoiding bright attractive colors. If your choice is to kill them, here are a few reasons that might change your mind. To start, wasps are a beneficial scavenger within your garden eating many garden ravaging pests. If that logic doesn't work for you consider that wasps get severely agitated and can sting you repeatedly when you miss. If you squash one, it will release a pheromone that attracts other wasps to your door. Oops. Since you can't control flying patterns, your best tactics are to evict and ignore.

For mosquitoes, the name of the game is population control. Remove any standing water in your yard, including soggy patches of earth which are prime egg laying grounds for mosquitoes. One mosquito can lay up to 900 eggs in its short life span. By not providing a place for egg deposits, you are ensuring that ground zero is not your yard.

You may require approval from squeamish neighbors when researching an appropriate place in your side yard or alley to erect a bat house. Sadly bats have gotten a bad rap through many urban legends, but in truth, this little winged mosquito slayer usually stays out of human hair, doesn't suck blood, and can easily consume 500-1000 mosquitoes in an hour. With that rate of consumption, it makes sense to do the legwork and if possible, get bats working for you.

Since mosquitoes are predatory parasites with no benefit, there is no clear reason why you shouldn't aim to terminate your local population. If hungry bats have been vetoed and you have an extra few hundred dollars lying around then try one of the fancy new mosquito traps on the market that use our very attractive human qualities of CO2 expulsion, or Octonal and lactic acid secretion to lure mosquitoes to their timely death.

With these simple population manipulation tactics in place and your favorite non-toxic insect repellent by your side, the opportunity is yours to put the charm back into the warm months, get outside and have a happy and healthful summer.

For more articles or to find a natural practitioner in your area check out TheHealingLink.com!